Deconstruction of Se7en Opening Credits

Se7en Opening Credits Deconstruction

In the opening credits of Se7en, the villain is shown editing diaries he has made. The villain is never shown so he is a mysterious and unknown character during the credits. Through the credits, it is made obvious that the character has psychopathic and obsessive tendencies when he is shown putting pictures of mutilated bodies into a book.

 

The opening credits are a mix of scratched frames, glitch graphics and bad quality shots. In the background there is a remixed version of Closer by Nine Inch Nail's.

The opening credits for Se7en are very detailed and the mise-en-scene used immediately show the audience that the genre will be horror,

Soundtrack

The non-diegetic music is slow with a beat, this runs parallel with the shots that are shown, although at the beginning there is quite fast paced editing but the music is at a slower pace than the credits, this could be to create an eerie atmosphere. The eerie atmosphere is emphasised with the creaking, mechanical noises and high pitched noises.

The only part where there is spoken word is in a part of the song, it is right at the end of the credits. it says 'you got me closer to God', at this point, the killer cuts out the word 'God' from a newspaper headline.

Camera Angles

There are mostly close ups and extreme close ups in the credits which is probably so that not too much detail is given away about what the character is like, this creates a mysterious and sinister feeling. There aren't any long shots because there is more of a concentration on the small details rather than the room that he is in. The close ups of different objects suggest some kind of importance and relevance to the film. The shots are often blurred, scratched or of bad quality to highlight the idea of deception and mystery.

Mise-en-scene

The person put pieces of hair into a book along with pictures of people. This builds up the idea that the character is obsessed with these people, hinting to what the film will be about. The books, pictures, files and pens could be associated with an investigation, implying more about the character.

The lighting is quite dark and dim from the low quality indoor light, this foreshadows something ominous and dangerous in the film. 

Location

The location isn't shown throughout the whole opening credits, which creates a feeling of intrigue for the audience. It can be assumed that he is in some kind of lair because of all the creepy mise-en-scene around.

Text

The flickering white font with a black background is similar to handwriting, it looks like the text was written by the killer. The text moves around and jumps a lot, it makes the audience feel uneasy and suspicious of the killer.

These opening credits are really good and so detailed, for our opening scene we can take ideas from this. The detailed close ups would be really good for our opening scene as it doesn't give away much information about the killer but at the same time hints at things. The props in the credits such as pictures of people, a book with lots of writing in it and files of information are all things that we could take ideas from and make them ourselves for use in our opening scene.